Buyers Guides > Wireles speakers, a brief product run through

Truly wireless speakers - that is speakers that receive both audio signals and power without wires – remained an unfulfilled dream for home audio and home theatre enthusiasts for a long time. Early attempts not only suffered from quality problems created by lossy audio, lack of proper synchronisation and broadcasting in the crowded 2.4GHz frequency band - a frequency band also used by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, amongst others - but battery-powered wireless speakers all too often lacked the output power for serious home audio and home theatre applications. Thankfully, however, wireless technology has moved on apace in recent years. Compact, completely wireless speakers which are nonetheless capable of reproducing rich, high quality audio, have become increasingly available.

Fundamentally, wireless speakers work in the same way as wired speakers. They receive electronic signals from an audio source, such as a CD player, MP3 player, TV, or computer and convert those signals back into sound that we can hear. The difference, of course, is that wireless speakers receive signals not through physical wires, but via RF ("Radio Frequency") or IR ("Infra Red") transmissions through the air. RF transmission is, however, the more common method employed. In most cases a transmitter is connected to an audio source via a standard, 3.5mm headphone or phono out socket, providing a means of transmitting audio signals to speakers throughout the home and beyond.

This, of course, opens up a whole world of possibilities for home audio and home theatre. Rimax Urban speakers, for example, are capable of operating on 6 standard AA batteries, but nevertheless provide RMS output power of 2 x 3.5 watts, over a range of 300 feet or more, including through walls and ceilings. This means that you can keep your music collection in a central location, say, on the hard drive of your computer, but listen to it in any room of the house on as many wireless speakers as you like. In fact, speakers such as Rimax Urban and AQ Deluxe are splash proof and weatherproof, so you can use them in your bathroom, or in your garden whatever the weather.

Another major application for wireless speakers, is in a home theatre context. Once again, Rimax Urban and AQ Deluxe wireless speakers are small enough to be accommodated in any listening space, yet powerful enough to reproduce the immersive effects of digital surround sound from DVD, Blu-ray or HDTV broadcasting. From an aesthetic point of view, installing wireless rear speakers in a home theatre means that you no longer need to trail wires the whole length of your listening space. In many cases you can adjust the acoustic characteristics – volume, bass, etc. – of each wireless speaker individually to achieve the balance that you require, whatever your application. Wireless speakers can also be a boon for anyone with a hearing impairment since they can place a single wireless speaker nearby when listening to TV, radio, etc. and adjust its volume to an appropriate level, rather than cranking up the volume of the main audio source and all of the associated speakers.